Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
That was what I got, but with so much more.
Boone: Good news: Your girl is home. Bad news: your girl came home to find her stepdad camped out on her couch sleeping. Apparently, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. I had to kick him out when he wouldn’t leave. She’s home safe, but I highly suggest that you get her locks changed ASAP.
Anger surged in my veins at finding out that her stepfather had violated her space.
I angrily shoved my covers to the side and jackknifed out of bed.
The outside cat that’d come with the house, that was now an inside cat, hissed and took off, knocking several things from my nightstand to the floor as he went.
I ignored him and everything he dropped and hurriedly got changed, brushed my teeth, and took a piss.
I was out the door without a second thought, heading straight for…
I barreled into someone who was practically standing on my front porch waiting for me. Or, more accurately, someone barreled into me.
My first instinct was to take that body that’d slammed into mine and pile drive it. However, my sister’s voice stopped me cold, forcing me to still the instincts that were honed over years in prison.
“Justin,” she whispered into my ear. “Justin, oh my god. I can’t believe you’re okay. Justin.”
The shock and awe I felt as I held her in my arms, sans chains, was everything and more. For years I’d wanted to do just this, but the chains and the guards, made that impossible. Even if they did allow hugs, that wasn’t the case for me. Hell, I barely even got to go to talk to my sister, let alone hug her.
Bernice dissolved into sobs, and I was left holding my sister as she broke down completely.
I was left with a wave of disgust for myself at making her think that I was dead for the last year. What kind of brother was I? I had subjected my sister to this, and I could’ve invited her here.
But then she would’ve had so much trouble…
I closed my eyes as I soaked in the feel of her in my arms, safe and sound.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, but it was so long that Bernice’s tears were drying along my neck where they’d trailed down from her cheeks. She was also shivering in my arms, likely due to the cold.
Her thin, Alabama blood couldn’t stand up to the Montana cold.
She pulled back only when her sobs slowed, and she stared at me with bleary, bloodshot eyes and a magnificent smile on her face.
“You’re alive.”
I swallowed hard, thoughts swirling.
Then panic.
“How’d you find out?” I growled, unable to comprehend how she’d found me.
Had I fucked up? Had Apollo? Romeo? One of the other guys?
Because if she knew where I was, that meant someone else knew, too.
“A friend of yours.” She cupped my cheeks. “From here. She was in the same city as one of my public speaking events. She stayed in the same hotel with me. Her name is Birdee.”
I froze.
Then an anger like I’d never known barreled through me.
How dare she?
And, even worse, how did she know?
If Birdee knew, who else knew?
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dropped my sister on her feet, then pulled her back inside.
Anger was tinging my words as Romeo answered. “Hello?”
“Does Mable know about me?”
There was a long pause and then, “I didn’t tell her about you. Only me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Did she share that information with anyone else?”
Romeo cleared his throat. “They actually found out before I told Mable.”
“They?” I pushed.
“Mable, Birdee, and Cody,” he explained. “They found it all on the mom’s computer. A huge computer file on everything she found. She might’ve had more in there about everyone, not just me. But I never saw it. Mable gave the computer to Apollo, and I expected him to take care of it…why?”
I gritted my teeth so hard that the muscles in my jaw nearly revolted.
My sister walked past me into the small cabin, looking at everything as she opened drawers and even pushed open closed doors.
Curious little bee.
She’d always been like that.
“Birdee told my sister where I was.”
“As she should have.” Bernice narrowed her eyes at me, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she stared me down.
Pissed was an understatement.
My sister was on fire.
Which, I guess, in her shoes, I would be, too.
“Your sister is there?” Romeo asked softly.
“She sure is,” I confirmed.
Romeo cleared his throat. “She doing okay?”
“Right now,” I admitted.
“Maybe it won’t be a problem at all, Creed,” he said. “Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.”
There was no way it wouldn’t be a problem up here. It was a problem in Alabama. There’s no way we wouldn’t have a problem where the weather was even worse. Hell, I even had my own issues breathing, and I didn’t even have asthma.